Manchester United have put all their eggs in the UEFA Europa League basket. If we weren’t sure about that before, this past weekend cemented it, given how the Red Devils essentially eliminated themselves from the race for a top four finish in the Premier League.
Jose Mourinho rested some key players against Arsenal (like he said he would do) and played ultra-pragmatically, even by his standards. While almost everyone will agree that Europa League is the more attainable and straight-forward path back into the UEFA Champions League, and thus the decision to make, there’s also a financial component.
United, up 1-0 currently on aggregate with their 1-0 win at Celta Vigo last week, would receive almost £40 million in Europa League prize money should they reach the final. United host Celta Thursday night with their chances very high of reaching the final game in Stockholm on May 24th.
“progression to the final by Jose Mourinho’s team would help the club soften the financial blow of missing out on participating in the Champions League this season
United, who will reveal their third quarter financial results on May 16, received £34.4m from the Champions League pot following their group-stage elimination under Louis van Gaal last season, plus a further £3.4m after reaching the round of 16 of the Europa League.”
According to that report, United would make more money from their deep run in this year’s Euro consolation bracket than they did in last season’s Champions League bust. Under Louis van Gaal in 2015-16, United failed to even reach the knockout round.
Mourinho said a couple months ago that United would be just fine financially if they missed out on Champions League for the next four years. Most interpreted the comments as a reference to the club’s many obscenely lucrative corporate sponsorship deals (with the Adidas shirt partnership leading the way).
If this report is true, then those comments work on another level as well.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes to WGN CLTV and KOZN.
Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Sound Cloud, LinkedIn and YouTube